25 years ago: Lawrence family receives good news from traveling daughter

A midnight telephone call from the U.S. Embassy in Katmandu, Nepal, brought relief to a Lawrence family when they were assured that their daughter, Emily Hill, was safe. Emily, 19, was a 1985 Lawrence High School graduate who had been traveling with her cousin and their friend when their bus had become snowbound high on a stormy Himalayan plateau in Tibet. Emily and about 20 fellow passengers, including her traveling companions, had hiked more than 100 miles to Katmandu, taking about four days to reach their destination. "She is a tough kid. I know she is tough.... We had hiked 17 miles a day as a family, but I didn't know she was that tough," said her mother Marcia Hill upon hearing the news. Emily, a sophomore at Dartmouth College, had begun traveling in mainland China in September, and had been in Lhasa when all tourists had been ordered out in early October due to civil unrest. Her family's last contact with their daughter had been a letter on Oct. 17 saying that she and the others had rented a bus to travel away from the area.